Bloomberg office pushes N.Y. Mag to amend 'racist' quote

9/7/13 7:49 PM EDT

The New York City Mayor's office on Saturday asked New York Magazine to amend a controversial line in its interview with Michael Bloomberg, in which the mayor appeared to accuse mayroal candidate Bill De Blasio of running a ‘racist’ campaign.

"The mayor's office asked us to amend the remarks to add an interjection that was inaudible in our audiotape of the interview, which was conducted over speakerphone," the editors state in a note, which appears at the bottom of the interview. "In our view the added words do not alter the meaning of the exchange as reflected in the published interview."

In the interview, New York's Chris Smith said that de Blasio has "in some ways been running a class-warfare campaign—," to which the mayor replied: "Class-warfare and racist."

"Racist?" Smith asked.

According to the original transcript, the mayor replied, "I mean he’s making an appeal using his family to gain support. I think it’s pretty obvious to anyone watching what he’s been doing. I do not think he himself is racist."

In the new version, the mayor's reply reads: "Well, no, no, I mean he’s making an appeal using his family to gain support..." and so on.

Bloomberg spokesperson Marc LaVorgna declined to comment on the change. New York Magazine spokesperson Lauren Starke directed POLITICO to the editor's note.

As our colleague Maggie Haberman reported earlier today, Bloomberg's remarks remarks were widely seen as a gift to de Blasio and even Bill Thompson, the lone black candidate in the race. The person the remarks seemed least likely to help? City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, the candidate most closely aligned with Bloomberg.